Chapter 006: The New Waves Push Forward the Old Ones on the Yangtze River

Fu Jun descended the mountain in a huff.

How could Fu Rou dare to be left alone? Naturally, she immediately followed him.

The father and daughter left angrily, as if the farce just now had nothing to do with them.

Fu Zhen looked at the people who had been watching from afar earlier and asked Mrs. Fu, "There will surely be gossip outside today. Mother, do you have a plan to deal with it?"

Mrs. Fu resolutely replied, "They were relentless today, at worst, we've torn the facade."

Fu Zhen made no comment.

It was a fact that Fu Jun had treated them poorly, though he hadn't left any handle on them before. In Fu Zhen's memory, this was the first time Fu Rou had gone so mad as to try and kill her.

Today they were the shameless ones, but Mrs. Fu and her children, on the other hand, cared about their face.

Mrs. Fu had endured insults in silence for the sake of her children because her youngest son, Fu Jia, had just started his schooling and took his studies very seriously. Most likely, he would take the imperial examination path to enter the bureaucracy in the future. To tear the facade without thinking would affect both Fu Zhen and Fu Jia.

With this in mind, she asked, "What connection do we have with the Du Family?"

Mrs. Fu was taken aback, "Which Du Family?"

Fu Zhen was puzzled, "Earlier, Fu Rou mentioned she wanted a marriage agreement with the Du Family. Doesn't mother know?"

The implication of Fu Rou's previous words was clear — the marriage agreement was Fu Zhen's, but Fu Rou wanted it. Given everything, it was clear that all of Fu Rou's oddities today were because of the Du Family. Since it was Fu Zhen's marriage agreement, Mrs. Fu must have known.

Sure enough, Mrs. Fu's eyes began to waver slightly. Gripping her hand for a moment, she responded, "She merely heard rumors; you shouldn't bother with her."

A marriage agreement based on hearsay?

Fu Zhen saw that Mrs. Fu didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't press further. She had enough troubles to resolve now and didn't want an inexplicable marriage agreement added to them.

"Leave the aftermath of this matter to father."

"Him?"

"The master of the Fu Family is him, and the one who was relentless in public is also him. Shouldn't he be the one to handle this matter?"

Fu Zhen chuckled as she got onto the carriage.

Mrs. Fu, half-believing, soon boarded the carriage as well.

Inside the great hall, the Buddhist chants were clear and bright.

In the backroom of the Zen temple, noble ladies were sitting and drinking tea. After a while, a matrons hurried up to one of the noblewomen.

"The Fu Family has already descended the mountain. This servant followed carefully for a while and found that the eldest daughter of the Fu Family indeed seems different from before. Although looking frail, she carries herself with vigor, not like someone critically ill."

The woman knitted her brows, "Did you see clearly?"

"This servant saw with absolute clarity. When she got onto the carriage, she did so by herself without assistance, and even helped her mother up."

A mysterious expression surfaced on the woman's face; she didn't hear the noblewoman next to her speaking.

The noble lady sitting near her jokingly said, "Mrs. Du Third, do you perhaps have important matters to attend to?"

The woman snapped back to her senses and quickly put down her tea with a smile, "No worry, just a trivial matter. Where were we? What good advice has Vice Minister Xu had lately?..."

On the way down the mountain, mother and daughter did not start a new conversation.

Mrs. Fu was still worried deep down that Fu Jun might retaliate once they returned to the residence, but seeing Fu Zhen sitting on the couch, calm as an old monk in meditation, she couldn't help but be lost in thought.

Mrs. Fu did not witness how Fu Rou bullied Fu Zhen herself. The event happened so suddenly, and she hadn't had time to ask the maids, but she had no doubt that Fu Rou was the first to act maliciously. However, in the past, Fu Zhen always endured silently, never erupting. With Zhen Er's frail body, she used to have to stop several times just going halfway to the temple, and had no way to deal with the strong and robust Fu Rou.

Ultimately, it was because she, as a mother, wasn't tough enough, leaving Fu Zhen no choice but to protect herself in such a reckless manner today.

Yet she was truly helpless...

She sighed guiltily. Fu Zhen, however, grasped her right hand that was resting on her knee, saying, "Why is mother sighing?"

Mrs. Fu shook her head sadly and instead held her hand in her palm, "I just feel that things are so nice now, very nice indeed."

Whether it was her delusion or not, the current Fu Zhen was filled with vitality. Her hands were warm and strong, as if they were providing her with invisible strength.

Fu Zhen indeed had changed. At first, Mrs. Fu was very uneasy, but now she didn't want to pursue why the change happened.

Either way, things were as they were now. Compared to losing a life, how big a deal was a drastic change in personality or appearance?

At least her daughter was still by her side!

Since Mrs. Liu brought her two children born outside into the Fu Mansion, when had she ever seen justice delivered to the malign?

In the past, they would have been tormented to death by Fu Jun.

Even if people later criticized the Fu Family for not distinguishing between primary and secondary branches, Fu Jun would have blamed it all on them after hearing the gossip.

Yet today, her Zhen Er calmly rescued herself and Mrs. Fu from a beating, making that father and daughter leave in such disgrace!

In six years, she had never felt such relief!

What more could she ask for?

Except... she didn't know how long she could have her like this.

The three-day deadline had already passed more than half a day! Could it be that after three days, a real life-or-death parting awaited her?

"At the end of this alley is the National Guardian General Mansion!"

Fu Zhen suddenly exclaimed, pulling Mrs. Fu out of her chaotic thoughts.

She replied in surprise, "That's right. We've passed by here many times on our way to the temple for incense offerings."

Fu Zhen released her hand and placed it against the window.

The large mansion occupying almost half the street ahead in the alley was the old residence of the Grand Tutor Fu Ziyu of the former dynasty, the current residence of the Fu Family.

When the emperor of the fallen state took his own life in the Forbidden Palace, Fu Ziyu also committed suicide with his family. The once first-class residence of the Fu Mansion in the capital fell into silence from then on.

When Liang Ning was young, she lived in the capital until she was eight years old and naturally heard of these stories. She and her playmates used to curiously look at this Fu Mansion, because at the end of this alley was the Pei family of the National Protector General's Mansion, another founding family, which she often passed by. Except back then, it was overgrown with weeds, with occasional snakes and insects.

General Pei Yu, being close in age to Liang Qin and of the same generation as Liang Ning, meant the two families were very close. Liang Ning often led her little friends through here to the Pei family to play.

Back then, the Pei family only had boys and no girls, so there was only a large garden. The small garden was used as a training ground where they could practice archery.

Liang Ning, older by a solid twenty years, called Pei Yu 'brother,' so his sons and nephews all had to call her 'aunt.'

However, Pei Zhan, the second son of the Pei family who was two years younger than her, wasn't very obedient. He never called her aunt, nicknaming her 'Taiping' like his parents did.

Liang Ning often took on an elder's stance to educate him, but Pei Zhan didn't listen. Liang Ning would then complain to his parents, prompting him to stop even calling her by her name, choosing to change routes if he saw her.

Liang Ning was so happy back then, always surrounded by admirers, feeling that having a vast forest, she naturally didn't need one tiny sapling.

After she turned eight, she went to the northwest and never saw the boy again. Now her impression of him wasn't as deep as her impression of this courtyard of the Fu family.

But years have passed in a flash, and now he has become a hero of Great Zhou, driving away strong enemies and recovering so many cities that Great Zhou had lost... As his aunt, her heart was indeed comforted. After all, the waves of the Yangtze River push forward, and as the younger generation succeeds, the older generation is also pleased.